There is known an inkjet printer for recording an image or the like by ejecting ink onto a recording medium, such as recording paper and a resin film. In the inkjet printer, various types of inks are used. Examples of the inks include solvent ink using an organic solvent as a prime solvent, ultraviolet curable ink that is curable due to ultraviolet radiation, and thermosetting ink that is curable due to heat. The various types of inks are used depending on intended use.
In recent years, there has been a growing demand to quickly dry ink in order to promptly shift to a next work process, such as lamination of a film so as to protect a printed surface after printing and cutting of a printed product into a desired size after the printing. To meet such a demand, methods utilizing properties of inks, such as the ultraviolet curable ink and the thermosetting ink, are considered.
On the other hand, the solvent ink using the organic solvent as the prime solvent is excellent in fixability onto a resin film such as a PVC sheet, thereby achieving an advantage in that a recorded product that is highly resistant to wear can be obtained. It is desired to enhance a drying property of this type of ink. To enhance fixability onto the recording medium, this type of ink is ejected under a state in which the recording medium is moderately heated, and also after the recording, the recording medium is moderately heated in order to quickly dry the solvent. For example, a platen, a paper guide provided on a front side of the platen, and a paper guide provided on a rear side of the platen are each heated, and due to the heat, the recording medium is heated. A recording head is also heated, and further the recording head itself generates heat. On the other hand, when the temperature of the recording head or the ink is changed, the viscosity of the ink is changed accordingly, which adversely affects the ejection performance and the image quality. Thus, it is necessary to moderately cool the recording head and the ink.
For example, JP 2006-264328 A discloses a technology relating to air blowing and cooling in the printer. The related art discloses an inkjet printer using the thermosetting ink that promotes fixing due to heat. This device has a structure in which a heater is arranged above a carriage so as to extend along a scanning direction of the carriage. Therefore, the carriage is considerably heated, and hence is required to be cooled. A flow of air is forcibly formed so as to cool the carriage by the air.